TREATMENT and CURE WEEKLY UPDATES HERE
The question of a God, or the Creator as I prefer to say, has been a major topic since humankind stood erect and looked up to the heavens. God or gods were fiercely pursued in our earliest days – wars were fought, killings, evil things darken our history. But we’ve come a long way in most of us recognizing there is only one God, or nothing. Many think happenchance magically happened. The rest of us think God, the Supreme Being, the Creator, gave us extra thinking capacity so we could overcome our hardships and shortcomings, like sickness and body cells that mutate. And we have done an amazing job of doing that. Being a Nature boy, I’ve always been hoping we’d learn to communicate with the other animals and live peacefully together, respecting their right to life, giving us a chance to learn what their life is like.
But, as we have achieved more and more, some are thinking we can solve every hurdle and spread ourselves around the universe. The problem is we’re destroying the other beautiful creations before humans solve how to co-exist with each other. There’s the problem.
Treatment and Cure ~
A few months ago, when giving my neck a rub, I noticed a tiny bump like from an insect bite. I got busy after that and forgot it until a week later when giving my neck another rub. Instead of disappearing, it was bigger, about the size of a pea, and it was hard. That sent a chill through me. Hard lumps are not good. I rang my GP, who saw me the next day, and that meeting started a marathon of meetings and tests. The first, an ultrasound, which after a few nervous days confirmed the worst prognosis. I had a malignant cancerous growth intertwined with irregular margins to my sternocleidomastoid muscle. That’s the big muscle on each side from shoulder to back of head that holds your head erect, rotates it, and lets you nod. The rapidly growing mass lay right where the major nerve to your brain runs, as well as the internal jugular vein. A major highway from the lungs to the brain. In the three weeks since first noticed, it had grown upwards towards my earlobe and down level with my Adam’s apple and popped out like a rising loaf of bread.
The ultrasound report sounded ominous, classifying this growth as one of the worst types of cancers, an aggressive, hard-to-kill mutation that likes to travel through the body.
We live in one of the best countries on this planet with an excellent health system second to none, and straightaway I was sent north to the best experts at the Gold Coast University Hospital where I became one of many waiting my turn. That first meeting resulted in a stack of tests being ordered. The most important, a PET scan, which is a special full-body CT scan with a sugar solution running through your veins that these growths love. These scans show cancerous growths. To my great relief, this one was the only one, none in my brain nor lungs. The primary source was found to be a tiny growth at the base of my tongue. The mass on my neck is a metastasis. Then came even better news. After a very painful biopsy was taken, it revealed the growth was a different type of cancer, one more easily killed, and one that rarely roams to other organs. But it grows fast.
Red hot spot is the primary lesion.
The large lump, which is on my right side, is the metastasis.
Test after test resulted in a conferences with dozens of expert doctors, who ruled out surgery. Too many vital bits are wrapped up in the tentacles of this cancerous growth. Instead, they’d attack it with weekly chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation.
That’s when things got complicated. It seems I’m not the only needing cancer treatment. The Lismore Base Hospital had one of its machines being replaced, which put my starting date frightfully a long way off. So my specialist suggested I go to the new Tweed Valley Hospital at Kingscliff, a hundred kilometres from home. They had spare access, and that sent Judith and me up to Kingscliff to take a look. Pretty coastal town. Slower pace. The ocean views reminded us of sailing the seas, which sent us searching for some accommodation for the seven-week treatment. And we were fortunate to find a flat with ocean views, only 1.7 km from the Tweed Valley Hospital. Not the vast distance through seven speed zones to Lismore from our home, a hundred-kilometre round trip daily. Adding to that, our ferry would be out of service for annual maintenance right in the middle of my treatment, which would put the return journey on a battered, potholed back road, up and back each day. A horrible thought! Therefore, we switched to the new hospital, where I have been for my first week of treatment.
I repeat, we live in one of the best countries on Earth. Friendly staff, tons of printed information, and great service. I’ll tell you more about the procedure next time.
BTW – in Ten days, Judith and I will be married 57 years. Amazing. Looking forward to reaching 60!
Our son Jerome is a dreamer like his parents. He works super hard to achieve his dreams. Here’s his latest: